Ranieri Joins Juventus

Juventus have confirmed Claudio Ranieri as their new coach and handed the former Chelsea and Valencia boss a three-year contract. Former Chelsea manager Ranieri left his role at Parma last week after leading the club to Serie A safety and had been widely tipped to join Manchester City. However, Juventus have beaten City to the punch and installed Ranieri as the successor to Didier Deschamps, who left the Turin-based club after leading them back to Serie A at the first attempt.

Juve last week clinched the Serie B title with a 2-0 win over Mantova to ensure an immediate return to the top flight just a year after they were relegated for match-fixing. Deschamps and the club decided to "amicably separate" just hours after the triumph, which came courtesy of goals from David Trezeguet and Pavel Nedved.

Juve promoted assistant coach Giancarlo Corradini to lead the first team until the end of the season. Marcello Lippi was reportedly a front-runner for the Bianconeri hot-seat but the club turned to 'Tinkerman' Ranieri after failing in attempts to lure the Italian World Cup winning-coach out of retirement.

A statement on the Juve website outlined their delight at having snared the 55-year-old.

The statement read: "Claudio Ranieri has signed a contract which will see him tied to the club from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2010."For Juventus, this is the best possible choice to achieve the aims set out by the club's tradition. "Ranieri is a man of great experience and international vision. He is able to carry out the sporting project approved by the administrative council."

Ranieri himself added: "This is a beautiful, difficult and electrifying challenge."It is a great opportunity for me and there's a lot of work to do in order to recover Juve's standing." "I have the possibility to return Juve to where it belongs and it is an electrifying challenge which I don't fear."It is an ambitious project but I am certain that we will do well and the fans should stay calm. We will make them proud of the team in Italy and then in Europe."